Samsung ex-exec tried to set up semiconductor plant in China. It was a copy

A former Samsung Electronics Co. executive allegedly stole blueprints and designs to try and replicate an entire semiconductor plant in China, Korean prosecutors said, outlining a stunningly ambitious attempt to set up world-class chipmaking capabilities in the world’s No. 2 economy.

Prosecutors said in a statement Monday they arrested a 65-year-old accused of stealing trade secrets from 2018 to 2019 to reproduce a chip plant in the northern city of Xi’an, backed by capital from a Taiwanese company they didn’t identify. They didn’t name the company the accused stole from, except to call it the world’s biggest memory chipmaker.